News about family travel
We've picked a selection of recent press articles about family travel and holidays that you'll hopefully find both interesting and informative (see our About Us section to read about Take the Family in the news):
Jan. 2006 Parents still playing truant for cheap holidays
Over 75% of parents say it is OK to take their kids on holiday during school term time, according to a new survey.
As Tony Blair plans to introduce £50 fixed-penalty notices for parents who play "holiday truant", 78% of them have rejected his plans in a survey on leading family travel website takethefamily.com. Despite the threatened fines, the ”Every Lesson Counts” campaign, as well as travel industry plans to offer discounts and free child places during school holidays, parents are still planning to take their kids out of school during term time to save money.
SCHOOLS BREAK UP. PRICES SOAR UP.
This February half term, a week in Lanzarote with Expedia will cost from £3,294 compared with just £1,299 the week after (Aparthotel Lanzarote Paradise plus flights and car).
Lucy Ace, managing director of takethefamily.com, said: "Parents
have just had enough of these price hikes. Yes, the government has tried
to make a difference. But what good is a £50 discount or a free
child place
if the overall holiday cost is so much higher.”
"It's OK for Tony Blair's family jetting off to Barbados and staying in Sir Cliff's holiday villa but most families simply don't have that sort of money."
"At takethefamily.com, we believe parents should be allowed to take full advantage of their 10 day allowance. Especially if it's used for educational trips.
"That could be improving language skills by ordering a croissant in a Paris caf' or learning about the pyramids first hand on a trip to Egypt.”
"Such trips are hard enough for parents with normal prices. But the extra increase during school holidays makes it almost prohibitive."
In the takethefamily.com survey 34% of parents said a maximum of 5 term time holiday days was OK, 29% said they simply do it because it”s cheaper while 15% said it was acceptable for educational trips only.
A Department for Education and Skills spokesman said: "Taking
a holiday during term-time can mean children miss important school time
and coursework. A term-time holiday is all too often seen as the rule.
It should
be the exception."
Headteachers can authorise 10 days holiday during term time. But they are increasingly coming under pressure to do so only in exceptional circumstances.
Feb. 2005 Term-time holidays okay, says teachers’ union boss
The contentious issue of parents taking their children out of school in term-time has reared its head once more, with a leading teachers’ union saying the practice should be allowed.
According to the Daily Telegraph, Geraint Davies, secretary of the NASUWT in Wales, said he believed pupils could learn more from the experience of travel than being at school, and called for a change to the rules that allow “permitted absences” of up to 10 days a year.
Recent reports have shown that absenteeism has increased in primary schools over the last five years, mainly because of parents taking children on holiday.
Mr Davies is quoted as saying: “Parents take their children on holiday during term time for a variety of reasons, particularly because it can be hundreds of pounds cheaper. Travel broadens the mind and captures the interest of pupils – it can help very much with their education.
"Primary school children in particular would learn more from two weeks in the sun than they would in school. In years gone by pupils would have gone away at the end of a school year for a trip, so what is the difference?”
A spokesman for the National Family and Parenting Institute reportedly endorsed Mr Davies’ views, but added: “What we would really like to see is the travel companies removing those extra costs so parents do not have to take their children away during term time.”
Report by Tim Gillett, News From Abroad Ltd
Oct. 2004 - Parents attack peak season price hikes
More than half of parents take their children away during term time to avoid the high cost of trips during school holidays, according to a survey.
The poll by parenting website www.forparentsbyparents.com found that 55% had taken their children out of school for holidays. Of these, 85% said they had taken between one and four holidays during term time.
The main reason for having to take holidays when children are supposed to be at school was high premiums charged by travel companies for family holidays during school holidays, according to the research amongst 136 visitors to the site.
The prospect of £100 government fines being levied against parents taking children out of school in term time would not stop them because the savings in holiday costs far outweighed the cost of the punishment, the website found.
Parents accused travel companies of being “villains” and urged the government to look at the issue of price hiking during school holidays before starting to penalise parents.
Tour operators have faced similar criticism in the past and blamed supply and demand issues as the reason why peak season holidays cost more. However, most operators run free and reduced price child offers at brochure launch in an attempt to offset the higher prices and to encourage families to book early.
The research was released to coincide with the imminent start of autumn half-term school holidays.
July 2004 - Spending on holidays to reach nearly £2,000 per family
The average British family will spend £1,830 on annual holidays this year, according to new research from Mintel.
The average family is defined as two adults with two children under 15 and the majority will be within the UK. The figures include all spending money while on holiday.
Around 12 million package holidays of four nights or more will be taken and, in total, families will take 42 million trips, spending at least one night away from home.
Mintel compiled the findings after interviewing 2,000 adults in the spring, of which nearly 600 were part of families.
It said the spending figures took into account the heavy discounting of foreign package holidays this summer, particularly in May and June.
"We've looked at everything and obviously the figures for some families are very low because they are travelling in the UK and staying with friends," said Mintel consumer analyst Amanda Lintott.
"We also take account for the fact there is a lot of seasonal discounting of package holidays."
The report also revealed an increase in grandparents taking their grandchildren on holiday and that single parent families have less money to spend on travel. It also showed an increase in people booking independently.
"There is now overwhelming evidence that holidaymakers, including families, no longer always opt for the packages offered by the major tour operators," said Lintott.
In total, UK families are expected to spend £15 billion on holidays in 2004.
But around 10 per cent of families never take a break, because the costs are too high.
Apr. 2004 - Kids have most influence on choice of holiday
Under-16s have more influence on their parents' choice of holiday than any other major family purchase, according a report from Mintel.
'Marketing to Tomorrow's Consumers' reveals that 46% of parents' admit that their children had 'some level of influence' over the choice of the main family holiday, with 38% saying that short break decisions were also impacted by children.
The question allowed parents to opt for more than one area of influence. Nearly a third (31%) said that 'factors connected with needs of the children' were part of deciding where to go on a long holiday, with 14% admitting that the personal preferences of the child affected the decision. Information and ideas from children were part of 17% of holiday decisions as well.
For shorter breaks, children's needs were less important, being relevant in only 22% of cases.
The report also looks at internet access and shows that 64% of two-parent-two-children households have the web at home, compared with an all-household average of 40%.
Dec. 2003 - Agents to help cut holiday truancy
The Association of British Travel Agents is working with the UK government to try to reduce the number of children being taken on holiday during term-time without the permission of their schools.
Under new measures to tackle truancy, which will come into force next month, travel agents will be obliged to ask parents booking term-time holidays whether their children have been given leave of absence by their school. Almost half of all unauthorised absences by schoolchildren are condoned by their families, some of whom take advantage of off-peak holiday prices to save money.
ABTA has agreed to remind its members that UK law allows head teachers to grant just ten days’ leave for family holidays and only if the school has been consulted in advance. Agreement is generally dependent on a child’s academic progress and attendance record.
Announcing details of the new measures, which will be backed by fixed penalty notices of £100 on parents whose children are persistently absent without leave, education minister Ivan Lewis said: ‘Taking a holiday during term-time can mean that children miss important school-time and course-work and it will be difficult for them to catch up later on. Taking a child out of school without the head’s permission is unacceptable and will be treated as truancy.’
Government figures show that in 2003, 7,500 parents were taken to court for failing to ensure their children attended school, with 80% of them found guilty. Some were sentenced to prison, although the majority escaped with community service orders.
Ian Reynolds, ABTA chief executive, suggested parents could get around the problem by booking well in advance for trips during school holidays. ‘It means getting holidays at a good price, getting maximum choice – and also means that your children’s education doesn’t suffer,’ the Times quotes him.
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